Military Monday- Digitizing of the Pension Records of 1812? What???

Root Cellar Sacramento Genealogical Society has decided to participate in

            "Preserve the Pensions-  War of 1812" Project.

The Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) is spearheading this project.   There is a $3.7 million nationwide fundraising initiative going on to digitize the long-neglected War of 1812 pension records.

These orginal documents are extremely fragile and they need to be digitized quickly to preserve the best possible image of each page. This is the first time in history that the entire genealogical community is coming together to see a project of this magnitude to completion... from the National Archives to fold3 to individual states and local genealogical societies (Root Cellar SGS).

This IS where Root Cellar SGS fits in............ We are going to have our own "money raiser" in support of this project.  Root Cellar SGS will match donations up to $300. We will be collecting from now through the June Meeting. So in the end we hope to be donating $600 (your money plus RC matched funds) to the project. In June our donation of $600 will be sent to FGS.

But wait it gets so much better....... FGS reports the donation to Ancestry.com and Ancestry.com will match our donation.  So now we have acutally donated $1200. Isn't that amazing.

If you would like to help and donate any amount please send your checks to:

Root Cellar SGS
P O Box 265
Citrus Heights, CA 95611

(make checks payable to Root Cellar & indicate on the check it is for War of 1812)

......we will also be collecting at each general meeting through the June Meeting.

Thank you so much for your support .......  we will keep you informed.

Interesting Facts: (taken from FGS flyer and website)
* Ancestry.com has generously stepped up and agreed to cover costs to digitize HALF of the War of 1812 pension records. So every dollar donated will actually go twice as far.
  example: at a cost of $.45 per digitized page, your tax-deductible gift of $45 would normally digitize 100 pages. But with the help of Ancestry.com it will digitize 200 pages.

* All of the War of 1812 Pension Records digitized with your donation will be made available to the public on  fold3

* The Federation of Genealogical Societies is pleased to partner with Ancestry.com, fold3, and FamilySearch, as well as numerous individual state and local genealogical societies (that's us -Root Cellar SGS) and leaders in the genealogical community.

* There are 180,000 pension records from the War of 1812 housed at the National Archives, a total of 7,200,000 pages.  From 2012-2015 we commomorate the 200th anniversaries of the War of 1812 battles - batttle of a war some hail as our second Revolutionary War.

posted with excitment and anticipation by Sandra Gardner Benward

Society Saturday – Rio Linda/Elverta Historical Society

[Editor's Note: Today's post was written by Richard Hanson. Photo courtesy of Richard Hanson's Geiger family history photo collection.]

You won't find their website or email address. They have neither. Searching for them using Google yields a few small hints of their existence (their name, a mailing address and sometimes a phone number). But if you are looking for information on your ancestors in the Rio Linda or Elverta areas (northern part of Sacramento County, California), their library may have what you need.

The Rio Linda/Elverta Historical Society currently manages Sacramento County's Dry Creek Parkway. They maintain a museum and library in the one surviving historical structure, a two-story farmhouse.

Street address: 6852 Dry Creek Road, Rio Linda, California

That museum/library is open to the public on a part-time basis. The library is housed in one of the upper-floor bedrooms. It contains numerous local-area historical books, maps and photos. In addition, their society historian has thousands of historical images of Rio Linda and Elverta area, its businesses and its residents.

This Dry Creek Parkway property was owned and run as a dairy by my Geiger grandparents for about ten years (1943-54). They sold it to the LDS Church which ran it as a farm. Sacramento County later acquired it for use as an unimproved park. I wrote a book about the history of that property while it was owned by my Geiger grandparents. That book can be found in their library.

The society hosts several public events each year on that park property, notably Farm & Tractor Days (next one: May 10 & 11, 2013) and Classic Car Show and Swap Meet (next one: August 31, 2013). Pay modest dues to become a member and you get their bi-monthly newsletter containing society news and an events calendar. Membership year runs from January to December.

Phone – society's President:

(916) 991-2484

Mailing address:

P.O.Box 478

Rio Linda, CA 95673

Follow Friday – Root Cellar's Message Boards

[Editor's Note: Today's post was written by Richard Hanson.]

One of the under-used features of Root Cellar Sacramento Genealogical Society's new website is its Forums page (message boards). A message board allows logged-in members to post new textual messages and reply to existing posted messages. Each message board has an assigned topic.

One of Root Cellar's message boards (dated 25 Mar 2013).

Root Cellar's message boards can be browsed by the visiting public. But the visitor must be logged-in to post messages or replies. Root Cellar currently has messages boards for the following topics.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

General Genealogy & How-TO

Reunion for Mac Software & SIG

Legacy Family Tree Software

Roots Magic Software

Family Tree Maker Software

The problem here is that these message boards are deader than cemeteries on a Monday night.

So what message board topics would motivate YOU to view and post messages? Topics could pertain to an area of knowledge, a genealogical activity, a product, a location, some part of history, some aspect of problem solving, Root Cellar meetings plus many other possibilities. Please post your ideas as replies to this blog.

Those Places Thursday – Finding that Church

[Editor's Note: Today's post was written by Richard Hanson. The story and photos were contributed by a member of the Sacramento German Genealogical Society who wished to remain anonymous.]

A member of the Sacramento German Genealogy Society recently described to me how the creative use of Google's images search search engine solved a little family history mystery. The starting point was the 1958 picture of a church somewhere in Germany that was found in that all-too-common parents' stash of unlabeled images.

Two images of the Sankt (St.) Boniface Church, Luisenplatz in Wiesbaden, Germany dated 1958 (left) and 2011 (right).  Click here for a list of names on the pictured Waterloo obelisk.

The member's account: "I found the picture among my parents' slides and remembered it was taken during a vacation in Germany in 1958. I thought the church was in Frankfurt since we flew into Rhein Main AFB when we went to Germany. I did several Google searches using keywords like Frankfurt Germany church, Frankfurt Germany kirche, Germany churches and various combinations of these. St. Boniface never came up in any of those searches. Next, I did a Google Image search by posting the picture of the church. Again, no luck. Finally, I found something in my parents' records that reminded me we had spent time in Wiesbaden. As soon as I Googled Wiesbaden Germany churches, I found images of St. Boniface."

Click here for Google's Basic Search Help

Click here for Google's Search by Image

Wordless Wednesday – Building the Model T Ford

[Editor's Note: Today's post was written by Richard Hanson. Photo courtesy of Richard Hanson's Hanson-Olson family history photo collection.]

Model T suspension components in a Ford auto assembly room. My grandfather, Edmund Hanson, appears fourth from the left. Probable location is Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Tombstone Tuesday– Finding Sacramento Area Cemeteries

[Editor's Note: Today's post was written by Richard Hanson. Photo courtesy of the Find A Grave website.]

At workshop meetings of the Root Cellar Sacramento German Genealogical Society, the opening question/answer/discussion session can lead in any direction. At the March 20 meeting, it led to the now gone New Helvetia Cemetery with the question being where did all the residents go. Several attendees provided helpful tips and information. But if you cannot attend the workshop meeting, is there somewhere else to obtain information on local cemeteries and find out what became of the missing ones?

Historical marker for the New Helvetia Cemetery. Photo is from Find A Grave.
(http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=cr&CRid=1982256)

One source is the website of the California GenWeb Project. Specifically, its Sacramento County website. To see a list of local cemetery resources posted there, go to:

http://www.cagenweb.com/sacramento/cemetery_dist.htm

Almost all the listed entities have websites and some include online searchable databases. It also includes a summary listing of over 150 cemeteries. And there is a page dedicated to the New Helvetica cemetery. As of the date the blog was authored (March 21), the URL on that website for the Sacramento County Cemetery Advisory Commission is wrong. Correct one is:

http://www.coroner.saccounty.net/sccac

I emailed the correction to the webmaster for the Sacramento CAGenWeb website and she replied back the same day saying Sacramento County has changed the URL for that page a number of times over the past year or two. So if you bookmark this county coroner page, be prepared to find it again.

She also wants to make this page the go-to place for finding local cemetery information. So if you have any corrections, updates, missing information or lists of graves, please send them to her. The website contains a contact form.

Oh yes. The answer to the question as to where the residents of New Helvetica where relocated follows.

   4,691 sent to East Lawn Memorial Park and buried in a common grave
   410 to City Cemetery
   84 to East Lawn and buried in private plots by relatives
   32 to Odd Fellows Cemetery
   6 to Sacramento Memorial Lawn
   3 to St. Joseph’s
   3 to Sylvan Cemetery
   3 to Elk Grove Cemetery
   2 to St. Mary’s
   1 to Masonic Cemetery
Source: http://www.cagenweb.com/sacramento/pdf/NewHelvetiaBrochure.pdf

Cemetery information provided courtesy of

Sacramento County part of the CA GenWeb Project

(www.cagenweb.com/sacramento)

The Root Cellar Sacramento Genealogical Society also provides information local cemeteries:
• Root Cellar's online store sells volunteer-created publications, some of
  which contain cemetery records.
• Root Cellar maintains a library at the State Archives Library in downtown
  Sacramento.
• Root Cellar provides volunteer research service to search accessible local
  records including cemetery listings.

Mobile Monday – Wireless Screen Mirroring using Reunion 2.0

[Editor's Note: Today's post was written by Richard Hanson.]

Whether visiting or researching, it is handy to have on-hand your complete genealogy database. Sometimes you need something more portable than a laptop. Thus I have the software app Reunion installed on my iPad (an Apple smart-tablet computer). But Reunion had a major limitation. It did not support the iPad's built-in screen mirroring capability. That means I could not display its screen image on a connected television or project it onto a screen.

In mid-March, that changed with the release of Reunion version 2. I tested that new release and it does indeed support screen mirroring. There are two ways to display the screen of an iPad (or iPhone) on suitable video device. The simple cheap way is a $40 audio/visual cable kit. But talking about that would make this Tethered Monday rather than Mobile Monday. The following diagram illustrates a more technologically impressive wireless method using an Apple-proprietary technology called AirPlay.

The television or digital projector must have either a HDMI or DVI port. To that you a little black box called and Apple TV (costs about $100). You cannot connect to a VGA port because VGA does not return a copy-protection signal to the Apple TV's HDMI port, thus causing that port to shut down. Then to get your iPad's screen image to the Apple TV, both must be connected to the same wi-fi server.

For you non-Apple users, there are other wireless screen mirroring technologies out there.
Android 4.2 users – Miracast. Display devices must support Miracast.
Samsung – AllShare (proprietary) on its Android devices. Display devices must support AllShare.

There also numerous video streaming apps and devices. Investigate well before buying since they all have limitations.

The Root Cellar Sacramento Genealogical Society hosts monthly special interest group meetings for the Reunion software product on all platforms.